Road Encounters


This morning I asked God what he wanted me to write about, and ROAD ENCOUNTERS popped into my brain…?!?!

Well – okay, so now what? (NOTE:  Everything I write after this is “God inspired”, and I’m writing just as I’m feeling it)

Even though we all spend a LOT less time on the road than we did before the pandemic of 2020, I would argue that we still spend a lot of time traveling between place to place.  And, if you’re like me, a lot of that time is usually spent in a state of “highway hypnosis,” a condition where the miles just seem to pass by without much recollection of what happened between point A and point B.  If I heard Him correctly this morning, God wants us to focus more on what happens in that space, because important things can happen when we’re on the road.

First, He wants you to know that HE SEES YOU THERE…

Luke 19 tells a story of Jesus passing through the land of Jericho.  A tax collector named Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.  Therefore he ran ahead and climbed a Sycamore-fig tree to see him as Jesus was walking that way.  “When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately, I must stay at your house today.’” (Luke 19:5)

He wants you to know that CONVERSION can happen on the road…

Saul was an educated Jewish Zealot who, after Christ died, believed the stories of Christ’s resurrection to be heresy.  For that reason, he persecuted early Christians, seeking them out in order to imprison, torture, or even kill them.  However, in Acts 9, we read a story in which Saul goes to the high priest and asks for letters which he can take to synagogues in Damascus, in order to use them to rout out (and imprison) some of the early believers.  However, on the way to Damascus Saul has an encounter with God that so changes him that he becomes one of Christ’s most devoted believers.  Later re-named Paul, Saul is one of the primary reasons Christianity spread beyond Jerusalem.

BLESSING can happen on the road…

In Genesis 32, a man named Jacob is on his way to meet his brother Essau.  The two have been estranged for years because Jacob stole Essau’s birthright, and their father’s blessing.  Jacob is worried about the upcoming encounter and sends all of his wives, servants and animals ahead.  The night before he is to meet his brother, Jacob ends up wrestling a man all night.  Jacob refuses to give up saying, “I will not let go unless you bless me.” The story ends with Jacob recognizing he has had an encounter with God, and God blesses him.

God says HEALINGS happen on the road…

In the Bible there is a story of a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years, and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her.  As Jesus was walking through town the crowds almost crushed him, but this woman came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak and immediately her bleeding stopped. Jesus told her, “Daughter your faith has healed you.  Go in peace.”

 And finally –

God can use the road to ALIGN YOU TO HIS WILL

In the book of Numbers, a prophet named Balaam was summoned by the King of Moab to put a curse on the Israelites.  However, God told Balaam not to go.  Then the King offered to “reward Balaam handsomely” if he did what was asked, and as Balaam headed off to Moab riding on a donkey.  But the Lord sent an angel to stand in the donkey’s path.  Three times the donkey refused to move forward as Balaam commanded it, and three times Balaam beat the donkey.  Then, the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn.  The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.” (Numbers 22:32) The Lord then told Balaam he could go, but rather than curses, he should say ONLY what the Lord commanded him to.

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When we get behind the wheel it is often tempting to turn our brains “off” and to succumb to highway hypnotism.  But maybe, (like me today as I head to Hilton Head) you have a road trip planned in your future, or maybe you’re just using the car to go back and forth to Costco...  Whatever it is – God wants you to know, the ROAD is often where He does some of His best work, so look for Him there!

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